An encouraging study was released by the Barna Group this past week, in which they shared that there millennial-aged Americans who are not Christians show a greater interest in spirituality than older generations who are unbelievers.
In a study released on Tuesday, Barna Group released a research report called Reviving Evangelism that addressed evangelism in the United States. Among their findings included data on how Americans express their spirituality, and how hungry they are for a spiritual connection.
In the report, Barna found that 70 percent of non-Christian millennials said that they have had at least one conversation about religion and their beliefs with a family member or close friend. When they asked the same question to older non-Christians, only 52 percent said that they had talked about religious beliefs with a family member or close friend.
In the same report, the group found that 64 percent of non-Christian millennials said that they engaged in a conversation discussing religious beliefs with a Christian, while only 44 percent of older non-Christians did.
Barna also found that 64% of millennial non-Christians reported having one or more conversations about their beliefs with a Christian, versus 44% for older non-Christians.
“Millennial non-Christians are much more likely to have had one or more conversations about faith than their older counterparts and are twice as likely to express personal interest in Christianity (26% vs. 16%),” explained Barna.
“They’ve also had much more personal experience with all kinds of evangelistic methods than older non-Christians, including through tracts (45% vs. 26%) or encounters with a person either at church (35% vs. 19%) or on the street (30% vs. 16%).”
The report, commissioned by Alpha USA, surveyed two groups of people. The first sample space was of 992 respondents who identified as Christians, while the second sample space was of 1,0001 respondents who were not practicing Christians.
More positive news
Last month, in a study of Evangelicals done by Dunham+Company and conducted by WPA Intelligence, it was found that millennials are more likely than any other generation to be actively engaged in their faith.
Rick Dunham, Founder and CEO of Dunham+Company, pointed to the findings, and emphasized that there is a false stereotype around millennials being closed minded to Christianity.
“Millennials are often believed to be disengaged in their faith, but this study shows that those Millennials who identify as Evangelicals are more engaged in their faith than other generations,” said Dunham.
“This mirrors our study from 2017 which showed that Millennials generally are as likely to engage in religious attendance compared to other generations, with this current study showing a much higher engagement among those who identify as Evangelicals.”
The study found that 61 percent of Millennials attend a church service at least once a week, compared to 54 percent of Boomers/Matures, and 44 percent of Gen Xers.
“From church attendance, to giving, and an intent to give more in the coming year, Evangelical Millennials demonstrate they are highly engaged in their faith,” Dunham pointed out.
The study surveyed 1,000 evangelicals across America, with only 53 percent saying that they attend a church service once a week.